The Harvester

Chapter 429: "What a heart tastes like?"

"You should rest more, Your Majesty," Mino spoke to Zikserth as a group gradually began to gather in the private chambers of the castle.

The Demon King grunted at his butler and sat on the edge of his room's bed; his demonic energy had yet to stop flowing outside of his body. It was considerably tamer, but its stability in terms of output and circulation made it even more impressive than the initial burst.

"I believe I have made myself clear, Mino," Zikserth narrowed his eyes and the butler sighed.

"No rest for the wicked," Rakna snorted and leaned against the wall. Other than Soma, Ramsa, and himself, Lilith and two other demon commanders had come into the room. One of the latter was a mature woman with half-grayed hair named Merid. The other was a tall and handsome man who had arrived shortly after the Demon King had been healed. 

It was a man named Faruth; with short silver hair, blue eyes, and two earrings hanging from his right ear. Curiously, the therian noted that Lilith was avoiding looking at him. The man was rather apathetic too. He had only bowed once to Zikserth earlier before falling silent entirely.

"Appraising my subordinates?" Zikserth raised his voice.

Rakna shrugged. "Just checking what we're working with."

"Any comment?"

"Well, you have good minions," the therian glanced at the commanders. Merid smiled politely at him and Faruth eyed him taciturnly. "The ice statue here seems even stronger than Lilith when she was at her best."

"Thank you for the kind words," Faruth said, closing his eyes and lowering his head.

"Why did you not send that one to the moon then?" Ramsa asked, a somewhat puzzled expression on her face.

"Lilith was deemed more fit to lead the forces on the main objective," the silver-haired demon said in his king's stead. "That's all there is to it."

"…yeah, I think I get it," Rakna deadpanned. "A brick wall hardly has the charisma to lead an army properly after all."

Lilith flashed an amused and wry smile at that, but Merid chuckled out loud, "I couldn't have said it better myself." She then bowed at the therian. "And, it is a pleasure to meet you, Sentinel. I have spent my childhood fearing stories about you."

"…you don't seem that scared."

She smiled widely and ominously… perversely. "I'm a huge fan."

"…good for you," Rakna uttered with a straight face and she giggled.

"We were lucky, in the end," Zikserth commented and everyone looked at him in confusion. "Had it been Faruth instead of Lilith… would you have spared them?" He asked Rakna.

The therian's lips curled up in amusement. "Frankly? Most likely not. No matter the world, a pretty lady will be a good pacifier," he snickered and the demoness in the corner of the room blushed in embarrassment.

"You didn't act like it at all…" She retorted with a groan.

"Well, let me put it this way. Between that," he pointed at Faruth's cold face. "And this," he pointed at the flushed Lilith. "Who would you be more inclined to spare?"

"..." 

Everyone in the room collectively nodded after a few seconds and even Faruth couldn't keep his expression intact; the corner of his lips twitching in a mixture of disbelief and perplexity.

"Well, he can be cute when he wants to," Merid said with a chuckle as she pinched the man's cheek, who gave her a small glare in return. "See?"

The Demon King smiled. "Regardless… Faruth, Lilith," his tone lowered a little and both demons promptly stood straighter. "I have heard of what happened… Each of you made your own decision when the corruption was seen covering the Earth."

Lilith lowered her head at that and glanced at her fellow commander; someone she could trust her life with and her oldest friend. When he refused to help when she initially contacted the armies to return to Earth, she would be lying if she said it didn't hurt her.

"Neither was wrong," Zikserth added and caught her attention once again. "As commanders, your army is as important as I am. Maybe even more so. Truthfully speaking, at the time, I would have preferred you stand back; without accounting for the Sentinel's intervention, that is."

"You're welcome," Rakna quipped in passing and the king snickered.

"And as such, you can leave it in the past," he continued. "I would appreciate it if my most trusted pair of commanders did not lose the camaraderie they developed over long years."

"…I don't blame Faruth for anything," Lilith eventually spoke up. "I just… was too selfish. I did not intend to force him to choose between his subordinates and me."

The silver-haired man looked at her and allowed his expression to relax a bit. "I do not blame Lilith for anything either," he sighed. "Before the Sentinel intervened, I was actually preparing to leave my troops behind and join them on my own."

Lilith's gaze snapped toward him; her eyes wide open. It seemed he hadn't told her this.

Zikserth grinned and turned toward Rakna. "See? An excellent soldier."

The therian snorted. "Yes. But as heartwarming as this tsundere demon can be, I believe there are more important things to discuss," he said and Faruth's perplexed mumble of the word 'tsundere' was completely ignored. "The main question is; how hard can we hit, and when?"

"You, Ramsa, and I can start on a Lunisolar Ritual already," Soma raised his voice. "For it to reach an optimal level of power, I would say 24 hours is a minimum requirement."

"The problem is you demons," Ramsa added with crossed arms. "Your power is not the Fiend's per se, but it is a byproduct of your God's corruption. In other words, its effect on the creature will be weakened at best, or absorbed at worst."

"I agree," Zikserth nodded solemnly. "I believe I can surpass that shortcoming by brute forcing it, but otherwise, even my most powerful subordinates will be greatly disadvantaged."

"That's not all. Let's not forget about--" Rakna was interrupted when the ground started shaking violently, startling everyone in the room. Panicked shouts were heard from outside but thankfully, the apparent earthquake only lasted a few seconds before stopping.

"As I was saying…" The therian huffed as if nothing had happened. "The Fiend will not be alone. It lost its little corrupted army thanks to me… but that doesn't stop it from using other things as its puppets."

"You mean… like this shaking just now? The land itself?" Lilith asked with a frown.

"Oh no," Rakna snickered. "Much worse."

As if on cue, a second earthquake rattled the castle and Zikserth's expression darkened. He could tell that this was nothing dangerous. Rather, it foretold something. This one was as short as the first, but at the same time it ended, Astraea appeared in a flash of light.

The goddess exchanged looks with Rakna before addressing everybody, "First, I set down an array around the hill," she began. "Before you ask, it's temporary. That hill is essentially an open tunnel impossible to close. To better explain, I want you to picture the Earth as a sort of… egg. The Fiend lies in its very center and is trying to expand itself; to break the shell and find a way out."

"Now, the reason why the Earth started dying all those years ago was most likely due to the Fiend waking up and thus starting the process of corruption. Like a virus, it spread from the core of the planet and started eating all the neutral life energy from plants, water, and minerals. But the Fiend quickly realized it would need a better strategy. It was weak back then; it would have taken a long time to escape the confines of its natural prison. So, it sought out a shortcut."

"A shortcut?" Rakna raised an eyebrow. "That hill?"

"Not exactly," Astraea shook her head. "It's Bhumi," she said and Zikserth froze. Soma also frowned to himself, as if he had been told something he should have known long ago. "The Earth God was used as the shortcut. He became a conduit for… let's say, an aligned drilling operation."

"One's digging up; the other down," Rakna commented out loud and she nodded.

"That hill is where Bhumi started his own tunnel. And if I'm not mistaken, it is also the equivalent of the Moon Shrine," the goddess concluded and looked at Soma for confirmation.

The Moon God hummed when everyone began to look at him. "Well, that is a given. If there was a vestige of me remaining, it's only 'fair' that Bhumi was also in the same state. Where it was though, is not something the 'Law of Equivalence' allowed me to choose. We were either unlucky enough for him to be exactly on the 'drilling spot' or his 'remains' were pulled to that place naturally."

"…so, this means Lord Bhumi will return to life as well, right?" Zikserth asked slowly, and the other demons' expressions darkened.

"Yes," Astraea answered. "I already detected him. Once Tarnished Death completes the tunnel, he will undoubtedly come out. And not as an ally," she added seriously.

"A contaminated planet, an army of demonic creatures, a Demon God, and a Fiend," Rakna listed with a chuckle. "Quite the battle we have to fight," he said, and as if to prove a point, the ground shook for the third time, clattering the furniture.

This time, no one said anything about it or even moved out of place. 

Once the phenomenon receded, Lilith tentatively spoke up, "How… do we proceed?"

"First, we need a more accessible solution for the corruption force," Soma raised his voice. "It will most certainly gush out once the Fiend emerges and Rakna will not be able to continually burn it off the planet's surface."

"We could attempt a wide-scale protective blessing," Ramsa suggested. "But it will ultimately not amount to much. It would buy us a few minutes if anything."

Zikserth nodded. "I agree. While the main reason I fell victim to it was my actions to stall its spread and strength, I would still barely last an hour under normal circumstances…"

As several people began to gravely ponder the situation, Rakna casually spoke up, "Off the top of my head, I have about three solutions," he abruptly stated. 

"…what?" The Demon King blinked.

"One; I engrave Lunisolar Runes on everyone," the therian said. "I haven't learned such a rune yet, but I'm pretty sure I can design one quickly enough." 

"Two; I create familiars capable of wielding my flames and make them stick to a group or person each. Three; we gather as many people as we can in the capital and set up a barrier around it to repel the corruption. Containing the source of the corruption is nearly impossible, but containing ourselves instead should work. If encoded correctly, we could even attack from inside of it."

"…" Silence filled the room. The therian hadn't said anything too shocking. It was all so sensible in fact that they almost felt stupid for being so grim about it just a moment ago… excluding the whole thing about creating a new rune that is.

"Ahem," Soma cleared his throat. "I don't see a problem with those ideas… I'm rather attracted to the third one, personally. Demons who cannot or are in no shape to fight will be evacuated to the moons while a stronghold will be created here to face Bhumi and the Fiend's army."

"I'm of a similar opinion," Zikserth added with a sigh and turned to his butler. "Mino, speed up the rallying searches and begin preparations for the evacuation," he said and turned to Rakna. "All of our raw materials will be available to you for that barrier. Take as much as you want."

The therian smirked lightly. "Thank you for your generosity. But I'm not going to stop at that," he said and the demon king raised an eyebrow. "I'll do all three, actually. And as a bonus, I'll even give you a fourth contingency; the best of them all."

On cue, Rakna raised his arm and an ominous power began to swirl in his palm. His grin widened and everyone unconsciously shivered.

"Tell me, have you ever wondered what a heart tastes like?"